Livin' La Vida Loca in Vegas

The day we got back from our Hawaii trip, our friend Rosie (Gordon's wife) asked a big favor, if we would go with her mom and her to Vegas that UPCOMING weekend. She felt bad that she hadn't taken her mom out much so far (Her mom flew in last week Thursday, the day before our Hawaii trip) and her mom really wanted to go to Vegas. Having just come back from vacation, it was hard for us to decide to go, but we decided that it was something that would be good so we went. Mark and I are self appointed experts on Las Vegas, having made several trips to Vegas in our last 13 years of living here on the Mainland and we haven't been in a couple years so I thought it would be nice to go. We left Friday afternoon, and got into Vegas about 4pm. Rosie's mom does not speak English and we don't speak Spanish so Rosie did all the translating during the trip, which never seemed a problem on the trip.

We checked into the hotel, MGM Grand, and then left immediately to the downtown area to eat at the Main Street Station's seafood buffet, which is one of the best buffets in Vegas and a good price to boot. I think Rosie's mom was overwhelmed at the selection, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We walked around the downtown area and saw some of the Fremont Experience shows (imagine a tunnel of lights above you over the street). The shows are much fancier than I remember them to be. We walked around shopping, and did some light gambling before returning to our hotel.

On Saturday we slept in and ate brunch at the Mandeley Bay buffet and took a look at the man made beach with artificial waves at the hotel. We walked over to the Luxor and rode some of the motion simulator rides and 4d shows.

For dinner, Mark and I had planned a special treat, we ate at one of our favorite restaurants, the Top of the World Restaurant at the Stratosphere. The restaurant has an awesome view, and the restaurant rotates every hour 360 degrees. The food is excellent and it was a wonderful experience. We got there before sunset so we could see Vegas during sunset and it was awesome. After dinner, we walked around the Stratosphere and then headed over to the Monte Carlo to see Lance Burton's magic show. He does some amazing magic tricks and even though Mark and I had gone 3 years ago, his show was almost completely different. That night, Rosie, her mom and I stayed up till 4am, walking around and playing the slot machines. Rosie was so tired that she fell asleep on one of the machines, while her mom and I were playing.

Sunday morning, we checked out of our hotel and went to go see the lion display in our hotel. There were 2 lionesses and it was cute to watch they play. We did a little more gambling and shopped for souvenirs. After that we ate lunch at L&L's Hawaiian barbecue, and then we went to go visit the mother of one of Gordon's good friends, David. After that visit, we left for the airport.

I think Rosie's mom really enjoyed herself, as we all did, so I'm glad we were able to go and play tour guide for Rosie and her mom.